BOARDMAN — Science gets all the attention it deserves at Boardman’s SAGE Center for the SCIence FRIdays gatherings of elementary school students.

The STEAM-centric meetings began in April, but there’s still opportunity to join the fun as the programs last until August.

Science scholars will get into an engineering mindset as those in grades four through six meet June 28.

“We’ll start them out with a brief introduction of what they’ll be learning about,” said America Pacheco, the center’s workforce training intern. “We’ll see a couple videos on introduction to engineering, and we’ll have challenge cards for them to get ready and some Legos and building blocks.”

Pacheco said the science, technology, engineering, agriculture — rather than arts — and math program includes the all-important snack breaks and some outdoor recess to burn off an abundance of energy.

“The kids can’t be in a classroom sitting down all day, right?” she said. “We have a curriculum set in place, and how to think outside the box. We’re thinking of having them do some roller coaster-building activities.”

What’s that? How steep and long is the first drop, and from what height?

”They’re going to be grouped into teams, and first, I’m going to have them design how they want their roller coaster, do some sketches,” Pacheco said. “I’m an engineering student at Oregon State University, and one of the many things we do before we start a project is we have to sketch it out and get different views. Are they trying to make it fast? Are they wanting to make it a super cool, scary ride?”

Pacheco said the next step is to decide what materials they will need to accomplish construction of their design.

“Then we let them build it out,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a really cool project for them to do hands-on.”

Pacheco said students will be able to work with Osmos learning applications tablets, “and they really love working with those tablets, because it gets their brain going.”

There also will be an origami break.

“Origami is super fun, but it’s also very complex and it teaches them patience,” she said.

Pacheco has rounded up a support crew who have experience working with kids.

She said the workshop will be able to accommodate 25-30 students and registration is required.

“We send out emails and make some phone calls to make sure the attendees are able to come in, and if not, we have a waitlist in place,” Pacheco said.

Later workshops in the summer will look at agriculture and mathematics.

For more information, call the Sage Center, at 541-481-7243, email education@portofmorrow.com or go to visitsage.com/science-fridays.

The meetings are 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., which leaves a half hour of flex time for parents to pick up their children no later than 3 p.m. Lunch is provided.

The Portland General Electric exhibit at the SAGE Center in Boardman has a new focus: renewable energy in Eastern Oregon.

PGE has updated its exhibit to showcase the advancement of wind and solar power technology, according to a press release, including the groundbreaking Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility, the first development of its scale, combined wind and solar generation with battery storage.

The exhibit teaches visitors how PGE turns sunlight, wind, water and natural gas into the electricity that powers homes and businesses in Oregon.

For more information about the SAGE Center, visit visitsage.com.